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Just as he’d known, that didn’t stop her. “I think Alana and you should become friends with benefits. I mean, it wouldn’t be that hard since you’re already more or less friends. And don’t you dare repeat that part about her being Jack’s wife or I’ll give you multipage details of the first time I had sex. I’m no more hooked up with that guy than Alana still is with Jack.”
Egan didn’t want to hear a word about Remi having sex, but it wasn’t the same. “You don’t have a buttload of unresolved feelings and guilt for your first lover. Alana has that for Jack.” He stopped, cursed, wondered just how much he should add to that, and Egan went with more. “Jack cheated on Alana.”
He watched, waiting for Remi’s stunned reaction, but it didn’t come. Her sigh was weary as if that’d been something she’d expected. Egan sure as hell hadn’t.
“Jack told you he cheated?” Remi asked.
He repeated the same word he’d already been using way too much in this conversation. “No.”
She sighed again. “He wouldn’t have. Even though you were the same age, Jack looked up to you, Egan. That whole ‘hero worship’ stuff can cause you to hold back on any seedier stuff you happen to be doing.”
Egan frowned. “Is that a confession?”
And for one sick moment, he thought maybe Jack had cheated with Remi. That gave him a hard jolt of anger before Remi must have interpreted his expression and repeated his denial.
“Noooo,” she said, stretching out the word. “Just a big fat no. Jack was like another big brother to me. Not that I needed another one since my cup already runneth over with three,” she added in a tone that reeked of kid sister frustration. “But Jack appointed himself as the surrogate big brother whenever Cal, Blue or you weren’t around.”
Egan probably looked ready to face-plant with relief. Talk about adding another layer of baggage if Remi had been the one. Thank heaven she wasn’t.
And it made sense about the “surrogate brother” part. Remi and Jack could have ended up on assignments together. Frequently. CROs typically were on deployment for four months out of every eighteen, and in between deployments, they went on shorter temporary duties to wherever they were needed. If they’d ended up working together, Jack would have almost certainly tried to look after her and keep her safe.
Of course, that was a reminder that he hadn’t done the same for Jack.
“Anyway,” Remi went on. “No affair with Jack. And no relationship for a long time. I just don’t have time...”
Her words trailed off when there was movement at the open front door of the barn, and Jesse walked by. He must have been in a hurry to get something done because he didn’t even glance inside. Still, Remi reacted as if Jesse had been ready to come barging in, and she moved closer to the stalls so she was no longer in the line of sight of the door.
An interesting reaction since he’d never known Remi to dodge anyone or anything.
“Something about Jesse and you I should know?” Egan asked, only partly teasing since Remi and Jesse had in fact once had a thing for each other. Egan didn’t know how far that “thing” had gone since Remi had left shortly thereafter for college.
“No,” she insisted. “Nothing I want to tell you because there’s nothing to tell.” She paused. “It’s just that’s the first time I’ve seen him in a while.”
Another interesting comment since Remi made trips home at least once or twice a year. Jesse didn’t live at the ranch, but he was around plenty enough for Remi and him to have run into each other.
Well, unless Remi was avoiding him as she was right now.
“FYI, Jesse’s not seeing anyone at the moment,” Egan threw out there.
Remi frowned. “But he’s less than a month out of a relationship with former cheerleader and current yoga instructor, Marla Henderson. That means he’s a walking, talking rebound.”
Egan wasn’t so sure of that. Jesse and he weren’t regular drinking buddies, but during his “one day a month” visits to the ranch, Egan had heard the talk about Jesse and Marla. It’d seemed to him that their relationship was much like what Remi had suggested for Alana and him. Friends with benefits or as Egan preferred to call it, strings-free sex.
Something he could never have with Alana.
Hell, everything about their relationship was strings and baggage, and sex would only add to that. He sighed. Because that sure as hell didn’t make him want to kiss her any less.
“Besides, I broke Jesse’s heart once,” Remi muttered. “Best not to test those waters again.”
“You broke his heart?” he asked. “When?”
But Remi waved that off and got back to brushing down the horse. “Let’s conclude this particular portion of the conversation with me saying it would muddy too many waters to try to get involved with Jesse.”
“Yet, you’re encouraging me to have a fling with Alana,” Egan enjoyed pointing out.
“You didn’t break Alana’s heart. Judging from what I saw, you were just about to kiss her for the very first time, and the heat was practically flying off you two like a handful of overheated Fourth of July sparklers.”
Egan wanted to deny that. Man, did he. But he couldn’t because he had a good idea of how Alana must have looked when they’d been on the verge of a lip-lock. Sparklers, indeed. That was a good description of it.
